EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story reported that Riverstone Academy was a charter school. Because it is authorized by the Education ReEnvisioned BOCES, it is considered a contract school rather than a charter school.

A new school, touted as the first public Christian school in Colorado, is facing pushback from the state education department over its right to public funding.

According to its official website, Riverstone Academy is a K-5 public elementary school based in Pueblo that “blends strong academics with classical values, hands-on trade-based learning, and a Christian foundation to help students grow in both knowledge and character.”

The website also states that the school opened this fall. It is contracted with the Education ReEnvisioned BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services) and partners with the Christian education programming nonprofit Forging Education. Based in Monument, the BOCES provides specialized educational programming to schools, districts and homeschooling families and currently partners with D-49, Montezuma Cortez RE-1 and Pikes Peak State College.

During a presentation to D-49’s board of education on Oct. 9, the BOCES’s executive director, Ken Witt, called the new addition “Colorado’s first public Christian school” and the result of developing a program that parents wished existed.

“We’re confident that the Espinoza ruling of the Supreme Court says ‘We can’t care when we apply public money to these private education institutions, we can’t care whether they are religiously associated or not, so we don’t,’” he said.

The ruling he referred to was Espinoza et al. v. Montana Department of Revenue et al., where the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the state department couldn’t deny religious schools from receiving financial assistance through a tax incentive program.

Along with his role with the BOCES, Witt recently acted as the superintendent in Woodland Park RE-2, where he implemented the American Birthright social studies education standard backed by conservative groups and pulled material from a high school course the district believed taught critical race theory concepts. He resigned in March after the district lost funding from a local sales tax and a last-minute attempt to sell district property to its charter school.

He had previously attempted to change social studies standards as the Jefferson County school board president. That led to his removal in a 2015 recall election.

In a letter sent to Witt and D-49 Superintendent Peter Hilts the following day, the Colorado Department of Education’s district operations special advisor Jennifer Okes raised concerns about the school’s sectarian operation and instruction as a publicly funded school.

She refers to the Colorado and U.S. constitutions, with the former permitting sectarian tenets or doctrines to be taught in public schools and the latter stating “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“ERBOCES is a public entity bound by the federal and state constitutions,” the letter read. “Thus, any school that ERBOCES operates must be nonsectarian in nature.”

Additionally, Okes noted that the school uses curriculum from Masterbooks and Berean Builders, both of which feature faith-based materials.

The letter goes on to ask if D-49 intends to include students enrolled at Riverstone in its fall pupil count, which is used to determine school districts’ state funding, since it doesn’t meet the same requirements and standards as other public schools.

“As such, any pupils that D-49 submits for funding from Riverstone Academy would not be eligible for funding,” Okes wrote.

A spokesperson for D-49 told The Gazette in an email that, since the school district does not directly authorize Riverstone, they are deferring all questions about the school to the BOCES.

During the meeting, D-49 board member Mike Heil raised these same concerns regarding the constitutional violations of the school.

“As somebody who gets deep into our U.S. Constitution and our U.S. history, eroding that separation of church and state is very concerning,” he said. “And, for us to be a partner in that, it does not sit well with me.”

Board President Lori Thompson then clarified that “separation of church and state is not contained in the United States Constitution,” while Vice President Jamilynn D’Avola added that public schools in the United States previously taught the Bible and prayed in classrooms before the 1960s.

“And they were funded,” she said. “So, there you go.”

The Supreme Court ruled in the 1962 case Engel v. Vitale that prayers in public school violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution since citizens adhere to a variety of beliefs, and the government endorsing any particular belief system would be inappropriate.